Lecture LM-01 - The Calling of Congregational Leadership

This course will focus on a multiple meanings of the vocation of ministry for both clergy and lay leaders. The class will give attention to three aspects of functioning effectively as a congregational leader: the being of the leader, the knowledge base for leading, and the multiple doing tasks required of the leader. Primary emphasis is given to the tasks of dreaming or visioning for a missional congregation, caring for the church and community, organizing for the mission, and resourcing the congregation.

Taught by Larry McSwain.

A New Special Low Price To Make The Course Accessible

We have made a special pricing of this non-credit version of this course order to make this course available to individual people or groups of clergy, lay leaders, and congregants of churches in small study groups. Christian College and TransformingTheChurch have endeavored to make this course as RELEVANT and as ACCESSIBLE to as many people as possible. Our goal is foster a broad understanding of personal finance as a basis for creating the capacity for generosity. We offer this course to the Church and Her Servants with hopes that you can participate. Group discounts are also available for study groups of three or more.

The special low price of this course also allows people to try our online courses without significant investment in their on-going adult education.

Part of Our Video Lecture Series

This course, "The Calling of Congregational Leadership," is one of our video-only courses consisting of seven high-quality video lectures from Larry McSwain. All video lectures are delivered as streaming video to media players embedded into each lecture’s page in a dedicated Virtual Classroom.

Session 1: 48:01 (mm:ss)

Session 2: 27:59 (mm:ss)

Session 3: 38:29 (mm:ss)

Session 4: 31:06 (mm:ss)

Session 5: 34:34 (mm:ss)

Session 6: 29:06 (mm:ss)

Session 7: 36:33 (mm:ss)

We recommend that you also purchase the course’s textbook as part of your study of this subject. You will get the most out of this course by using the videos and the book together. Study both at your own pace.

For the price of registration, you will receive 120 days of unlimited access to this course’s Virtual Classroom and all of its included videos and other class materials. You may come and go into this course’s online Virtual Classroom as often as you wish.

An Ideal Course for Both Individuals and Small Groups

This course is designed for both individuals and small groups who wish to learn more about the wise management of personal finance. The course makes an excellent small-group study or a church-wide study. The material is condensed enough to be taught in a half-day workshop format still allowing plenty of tie for group discussions. The price of the course is purposely low enough to allow each member of the group to purchase their own access to the course materials to study individually either before or after a group meeting.

Online Distance Learning

This a distance-learning course that can be completed online without the need for travel; either across town or to another city. The course can be taken from a home, office or even a coffee shop. All you need is a web browser and a broadband Internet connection. The course can be successfully used by people with only the most basic of computer skills.

Use any Device From Anywhere

Access this course from anywhere; at home, at the office or when out on the run. You can access our course videos 24x7 from anywhere you choose; you can in complete control. We fully support desktop devices as well as mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The responsive design of all of our web pages and video players will automatically size our materials and rearrange page regions to fit best the particular device you choose to use. Included in this support is our Adaptive Streaming technology that will automatically and dynamically adjust our streaming speed to fit best your particular broadband connection. Go as slow as 3G wireless connections or as fast as fiber-to-the-home connections allow. Rest assured that for any device or connection speed you elect to use, we will support it to the best possible quality the device allows.

Additional Information About This Course

In the sidebar on the right side of the page, there is additional information about this course. Please explore these pages for more information.

Course Instructor: Dr. Larry McSwain

Larry McSwain serves as a ministry coach with International Coach Federation training and consults with congregations through the Center for Congregational Health at Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His consulting focus is on planning, staff configurations, and staff compensation/evaluation.

Larry served as Professor of Leadership at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he held the Watkins Christian Foundation Endowed Chair in Ministry and served as Associate Dean for Doctor of Ministry Studies. He taught Christian Ethics, Leadership, Change and Conflict in the Church, and Capstone courses from 2003 until 2012 when retired from full-time teaching. He continues to teach at McAfee as an adjunct professor.